UK banks 'handled' $740 mn in laundered Russian money: reports

A number of British banks allegedly processed almost $740 million in a multi-billion greenback Russian cash-laundering rip-off, The Guardian newspaper reported on Monday.

In line with paperwork obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Challenge, at the very least $20 billion was moved out of Russia between 2010 and 2014 in an enormous felony operation referred to as “The International Laundromat”.

The rip-off concerned over 500 individuals together with oligarchs and Russian criminals with hyperlinks to the federal government and the spy company, KGB.Over that interval, British banks together with HSBC, the Royal Financial institution of Scotland (RBS), Barclays and Coutts reportedly dealt with over 1,900 transactions — out of 70,000 — value almost $740 million.

An extra 373 operations are believed to have gone via US banks, for a complete quantity of $sixty three million.

“Barclays complies with the principles and laws in all of the jurisdictions through which it operates and has techniques and controls in place to mitigate the danger of the financial institution getting used to facilitate monetary crime,” a spokesman for the financial institution stated.

HSBC responded to the allegations saying: “The financial institution has techniques and processes in place to determine suspicious exercise and report it to the suitable authorities authorities.

“This case highlights the necessity for larger info sharing between the private and non-private sectors, every of whom holds necessary info the opposite doesn’t.”

RBS stated they have been “dedicated to combating monetary crime and cash laundering consistent with our laws and have controls and safeguards in place to determine, assess, monitor and mitigate these dangers.”

In accordance with The Guardian, whereas all main British banks will face questions over why they didn’t increase the alarm on suspicious cash transfers, they solely processed cash that had already been laundered.

The newspaper reported nevertheless that American banks, together with CitiBank and Financial institution of America, are the one ones that increase cash-laundering considerations.